Eye care professional bodies and service providers have responded to the publication of the Darzi review, which examined the state of the NHS.
Lord Ara Darzi’s report highlighted that the NHS was in ‘serious trouble’ and public satisfaction was now at its lowest ever.
Among the recommendations was the need to simplify and innovate care delivery by embracing multidisciplinary models of care that brought together primary, community and mental health services.
The Federation of Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians (Fodo) noted the health secretary West Streeting’s comments in response to the report about the need to make ‘three big shifts.’
These were: move from hospital to community care, transform from analogue to digital, and focus on prevention rather than just treating sickness.
Harjit Sandhu, FODO's CEO, said: ‘For far too long, we have seen people suffer avoidable sight loss due to delays in accessing hospital eye care. Primary eye care has been calling for these three big shifts for more than two decades and the Darzi review highlights the cost of inaction. We welcome the Darzi review and will support the government and NHS to make these three big shifts happen.’
The College of Optometrists noted the recommendations had long been identified as solutions to fixing eye care in England, which were outlined in its own manifesto for change.
‘We are pleased to see the Westminster government agrees with our priorities and we call on them to deliver these changes as soon as possible to help reduce unnecessary sight loss,’ the College said.
Specsavers, which submitted evidence to the review, focused on the findings about homelessness, which was described by Lord Darzi as a health catastrophe. ‘Specsavers is working to improve access to eye health care for people experiencing homelessness with our partnerships across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
‘We also continue to call for the scrapping of unnecessary barriers to eye health services for people experiencing homelessness not in receipt of state benefit and for people who cannot leave their homes unaccompanied is another important measure.’
